[ NNSquad ] Re: Internet User's Bill of Rights [was: Google Hijacked -- Major ISP to Intercept and Modify Web Pages

[Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>]

On Mon, 10 Dec 2007, John Bartas wrote:
> "To me it's even simpler: What am I paying my ISP to do?"
>
> 	I'd like to propose an answer, in two parts:
>
> 1) I'm paying my ISP to move a stream of packets between my site and other 
> internet sites. They are not to edit, drop, reorder, examine, modify or add 
> to the packets other than the minimal RFC-compliant header changes required 
> for forwarding the packets. 
> 2) They must handle all packets in FIFO order except by mutual pre-argeement. 
> For example, If I consent to delaying my bit-torrent traffic to improve 
> timing of my RTP streams, then they may do so; but not without my prior 
> informed consent.

You may have confused a packet switching network and a TDM private line.

TDM private lines have strict FIFO bit handling, they are also much more
expensive.  Packet switching networks are cheaper, but also don't make 
the same promises about packet ordering, variable bandwidth, packet loss, 
or even data corruption, etc.

If you want to pay a lot more, would all these issues disappear?  On the 
other hand, is there a reason why they are lower cost?  There doesn't 
seem to be much concern about "network neutrality" for expensive network 
connections usually bought by commercial companies.

You might be interested in the paper "Characterizing Residential Broadband 
Networks":
http://www.imconf.net/imc-2007/papers/imc137.pdf